Libretto by the composer
First performed August 17th 1876, Festspielhaus Bayreuth
Sung in German with surtitles
Duration: c. 5 3/4 hrs. with two intervals

About the piece

»Away from the Ring!« With these words, the last for nearly 16 hours, Hagen, the »Niblungen Son«, plunges into the water of the sw ...

»Away from the Ring!« With these words, the last for nearly 16 hours, Hagen, the »Niblungen Son«, plunges into the water of the swollen river and is dragged down to the deep by the Rhine Maidens. Much comes to an end during the closing of the work. But not all is lost. Siegfried dies. Brünnhilde chooses to join him in death. Gunther is killed. Hagen sinks. The Norns lose their knowledge. Erda remains silent. The gods »appear« to burn. But, for the first time, something like a modern »society« seems to manifest itself. And Alberich – embodiment of the lust for power and lovelessness – lives on: his principles continuing to exist as the opponent to all humanistic intentions.
The premiere of Götterdämmerung rounds off the new production of the Ring des Nibelungen in Frankfurt. The ending remains complex and open. Walter Jens formulated the question about this task more than two decades ago: »Final game or repeated inauguration? Definite end or ›transcendence of despair‹, which leads to new shores, because the world has perished along with the sacrifice. It defines the fascination of Wagner’s Ring, its end above all, that questions triumph over answers: that Wagner had made five variations shows how open the interpretation of the tetralogy was to him as well, and how much the dialogue between Feuerbach and Schopenhauer, even between Christ and Buddha, must continue relentlessly questioning the possible meaning the end of an age continues to have. … as a sign that it is the task of posterity, provoked by fantasy, to carry on the game.

Synopsis

The three Norns prophesy the end of the gods. Siegfried leaves the Ring with Brünnhilde before going off to seek adventure. He mee ...

The three Norns prophesy the end of the gods. Siegfried leaves the Ring with Brünnhilde before going off to seek adventure. He meets Alberich’s son Hagen and his half-brother Gunther and half-sister Gutrune. Hagen gives Siegfried a potion to make him forget all about Brünnhilde and marry Gutrune. Waltraute begs Brünnhilde to return the Ring to the Rhinemaidens but she refuses. Siegfried takes on Gunther’s form with the help of the Tarnhelm, takes the Ring from her and brings her back as Gunther’s future bride. When Brünnhilde, unrecognised by Siegfried, sees the Ring on his hand she accuses him of treachery. She, Hagen and Gunther now plan Siegfried’s death. Siegfried, out hunting, meets the Rhinemaidens who beg him to return the Ring. Hagen and Gunther ask him to tell them about his adventures. Hagen gives him another magic potion and his love for Brünnhilde returns to him. Hagen kills him and his body is brought back to the Gibichungs. Hagen kills Gunther during an argument about the Ring. Brünnhilde orders a funeral pyre to be built. She takes the Ring from Siegfried’s finger and rides with her horse Grane into the flames.